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6. The Inter-War Period (1919-1939): Scholarly and Theatrical
Interpretations

When in 1919 Poland was at last granted independence, the
country faced many political and economic problems, yet
Shakespeare's plays were frequently staged in theatres. The
opening of the Polski Theatre in Warsaw (1913) undoubtedly
greatly contributed to Shakespeare's popularity on Polish
stages. Its new technical machinery (e. g. a revolving stage)
made possible the premiers of the plays (The Tempest
and The Comedy of Errors) that had never been
produced in Poland.

In 1924 Leon Schiller (1887-1954) began his professional
career as a director. His presentations of The Winter's
Tale (1924), As You Like It (1925), Julius
Caesar (1928), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1934),
Coriolanus (1936), and The Tempest
(1947) broke away from the descriptive realism present in
theatrical aesthetics and introduced the convention of the
theatre of imagination, his version of "the monumental
theatre." As Krystyna Duniec indicates, Schiller's
interpretations of Shakespeare's plays reflect his specific
approach to Shakespeare's texts. The artist was of the
opinion that one should

reject everything, everything superfluous, and when
necessary complete the text, translate in a form worthy of
the epoch, modernise the rhyme and the action dynamics, and
what is more important one should remove any traces of all
kinds of historicising, archeologising [present] in the
dialogue, setting, plot and costumes. (qtd. Duniec, 1998:
8)

Following his fascination with Shakespeare's plays, the
director intended to create theatre that was to break the
national Romantic tradition and constitute good
entertainment. The archive materials show that Schiller was
inspired by Vsevold Meyerhold's biomechanics, Emile
Dalcroze's eurythmics, commedia dell'arte, circus and sport.
His productions always evoked heated critical discussions. He
was criticised for his emphasis on the openings and endings,
profusion of visual and acoustic effects, diffused action,
excess of group scene, and his general disrespect for
Shakespeare's originals, though no one doubted that his
stagings were of a great artistic value, and they for ever
"intertwined Schiller's name with the name of the Bard" in
the history of Polish theatre (Duniec, 1998: 184).

The period also produced many outstanding Shakespeare
players. Roman Żelazowski (1854-1930) achieved
especially great acclaim as Macbeth and Shylock. Józef
Rybicki was one of the most lyrical Romeos and Hamlets.
Kazimierz Kamieński (1865-1928) and Karol Adwentowicz
(1871-1958) were praised for their modernist interpretations
of Shakespeare's characters while Wojciech Brydziński
(1874-1966), Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski (1882-1943), and
Aleksander Węgierko (1893-1941) experimented with
psychoanalytic renderings of their roles. Stefan Jaracz
(1883-1943) distinguished himself as Shylock whom he
presented as "an insane miser, but not an enemy of humankind
lying in ambush" (qtd. Got, 1965: 91).

Stanisława Wysocka (1877-1941) was generally regarded as
the most eminent female performer of that period. Her
interpretation of Lady Macbeth--filled with inflexible
austerity--was complimented by both critics and audience. She
was also the first Polish female actor who played Hamlet.
Like many other outstanding male players at that time,
Wysocka portrayed the Danish prince as a strong person,
consistent and seldom wavering in his actions (Komorowski,
2002: 190-192). Only in 1989 Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska
successfully ventured to follow Wysocka's example. Andrzej
Wajda, the director, called this staging Hamlet IV
because it was his fourth production of the play. The action
was presented in two locations: in the dressing room and on
the theatrical stage. Budzisz-Krzyzanowska played both
Hamlet and the actor who was to play that part.

Stanislawa Wysocka as Lady Macbeth, Poznan 1929.

Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska as Hamlet, TV Theatre,
1992.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

Urszula Bielous noted that it was very difficult to pinpoint
when the performer was becoming the character in the play. In
Budzisz-Krzyzanowska's interpretation Hamlet was a reflexive
and calm individual--despite all his pain and aggression--as
if in her performance, the actor were writing an essay on
human nature. In other words, Budzisz-Krzyzanowska was not a
woman dressed up as a man, but an incarnation of Hamlet's
predicament, which is not gender specific (1989: 10).

It was also the time of Shakespeare's full-fledged entrance
into the Polish critical and scholarly studies. One of the
most eminent monographs written at that period was Leon
Pininski's Shakespeare, wrazenia, I szkice z tworczosci
poety (Shakespeare, Impressions Sketches on the
Poet's Works). This two-volume work gave thorough
summaries of Shakespeare's plots, their sources, and an
interpretation of the characters (1924). In 1914 Professor
Wladyslaw Tarnawski published his monograph O polskich
przekładach dramatów Szekspira (On the Polish
translations of Shakespeare's plays), the work that is
still regarded as a classic. In 1927 Professor Roman Dyboski
wrote William Shakespeare, one of the first
comprehensive studies on Shakespeare's life and work. His
monograph revealed not only an extensive command of
Elizabethan history, literature, and theatre but also an
impressive knowledge of the European appropriation of
Shakespeare, which Dyboski located in the current critical
tends. There were also some attempts to trace Shakespeare's
presence in Polish literature and culture. Stanisław
Windakiewicz devoted his monograph to Shakespeare's influence
upon Słowacki's dramatic craft (1910) while
Shakespeare's tragedies served Marian Szyjkowski as a
structural and thematic norm used for his evaluation of
Polish playwrights (1923).

New editions of Shakespeare's plays were usually accompanied
with extended introductions written by eminent Polish
academics. Andrzej Tretiak wrote them for The
Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, and
Othello (1923-1927). Tarnawski prefaced and edited
Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and
Julius Caesar (1924-1926). A truly colossal
enterprise was accomplished by Dyboski, who in 1911-1913
wrote a general introduction and short prologues to all
Shakespeare's plays published in a twelve-volume edition of
their Polish translations.

Though not of a scholarly character Tarnawski's appreciation
of Shakespeare's art was probably one of the most significant
studies, since it popularised the playwright among the
general Polish reading public. The author's enthusiasm
emanated from the pages of his little book, Szekspir:
książka dla dzieci i młodzieży
(Shakespeare: a Book for Children and Teenagers).
Tarnawski's fascination was not surprising, since, as he
confessed, he found in Shakespeare the courage to survive the
continuous shelling in the World War I trenches. At that time
Shakespeare helped him find the answers to the most painful
existential questions, to struggle on, despite the atrocity
of human fate (1931: 5).